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I don’t need to wait for them to find out. I get a call from one of our guys in the seventh precinct while I’m looking through my diary. “Eddie,” I say when I answer the phone. “I hear you made sergeant. Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Don Bianchi.”
“How’s Mary doing?”
“She’s fine,” he replies. “Doing much better in her new school.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Let me know if the bullying starts up again.”
“I will do. Listen, Don Bianchi, I thought you’d want to hear it from me before it gets in the papers.”
“Hear what, Eddie?”
“They’re calling it the hold ‘em massacre.”
My blood runs cold. “What happened?”
“All four players and your croupier are dead. Looks like an assault rifle of some kind. Bullets everywhere.”
“Any suspects?”
“Camera wires were cut on the way in. No witnesses. It’s not looking good, Don Bianchi, but I’ll do what I can to find the son of a bitch. Get the best detectives on the case. Grantham maybe or Fassbender.”
“I know you will do your best, Eddie. Anything else?”
“Yeah, bit of a strange one. Left an order of service in the middle of the card table. Funeral of a Jody Fletcher. About six weeks back, according to the date on it. Any idea who that is?”
“She was hit by a drunk driver.”
“Oh, shit, I remember. It was Alessandro that hit her, wasn’t it? Chief shut the case before it even opened. One of my guys was at the scene. Got told not to take a sample by the chief himself.”
“Appreciate the intel, Eddie. Anything else you find out, give me a call.”
“Will do, Don Bianchi. I’m real sorry about all this. Terry and me, we used to go to school together. I mean, we weren’t friends or nothing but still, makes you think, doesn’t it?”
“Goodbye, Eddie.”
I hang up the phone and close my diary. That proves it beyond any doubt. The order of service left at the scene.
Albert’s calling me before I’ve had time to think. I answer while looking out my window at the lawn. A bird is hopping across the grass. He’s got no troubles. Lucky little shit.
“We just got here,” Albert says. “It’s a real mess.”
“Eddie rang. Said there was an order of service left in the middle of the table. That true?”
“Only thing without any blood on it. Picture of Kelly Fletcher next to it. Diego’s in there now, taking some shots to send you.”
“Tell him not to bother. I already know who did it.”
“You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Don Colombo ordered it.”
“Why leave the order of service though?”
“Telling me he knows I was at the funeral. Giving me a friendly warning not to get involved in this.”
“What about Kelly’s picture?”
